Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Domination and Liberation
by Shadow Lucario 50
Summary: When Lucas and Lilly are separated from each other, they must find their way back to each other to stop the war that is taking place in the land of Gerlenium.


Chapter 1: The Mysterious War

The morning rays shone through the cliff side as the sun greeted the world with a warm welcome. Light came pouring through the cave mouth of a shark-based cave, the teeth somehow glimmering from the bright beams despite being solid stone. Thick roots grew on the side of the wall, with it's coils wrapping around a fountain gushing out water. A pile of charred logs, with small, white smoke emerging from the black of the wood, stood in the center of the cave mouth. Near the faint embers, two mice slept on two separate beds that were made of tightly twinned straw.

As the sunshine continued to radiate, the blue and tan mouse squirmed, squinting his eyes before slowly opening them. As the sunlight continued its glare, he had to slowly adjust to the brightness that continuously shoot his poor eyes. The mouse gazed around a bit, a soft moan emerging from his throat as he started stretching his body straight upwards.

_Morning already?_ the now awake mouse thought, _Why did that rescue have to take up so much of the night?_

With a yawn, the Cyndaquil walked over to the spring and started splashing the clear liquid onto his face. He knew that Lilly, the yellow mouse, would wake soon, and he would rather be somewhat cleaned before her enthusiastic morning greeting. Usually, the feminine mouse woke him each morning to get ready. So he took the advantage of what time he had to prepare for the day. Also, it allowed him the chance to watch her rise from her slumber, which Lucas found extremely adorable.

Lucas quickly snapped back into reality. _Bad Lucas!_ he thought, _She's my partner and friend. N-Nothing more than that!_

Lucas looked back at Lilly and smiled, cheeks flushing a bright red through his light-brown face. _Though, she is cute when asleep..._

Almost immediately, Lucas slapped himself with his wet paw for letting his Pokémon side get the best of him. He turned back to the spring, dipping his paws in the well and collecting the soft water. He flailed more of the clear liquid onto himself, ignoring that he must have looked like the biggest fool for splashing about.

As he continued his immersion, small droplets fell on Lilly's face. Without Lucas's knowledge, she was smiling while watching his crazy antics of frantically floundering in the well.

"You know," Lilly started, catching Lucas off guard as he jumped from surprise. "If you wanted to become more resistant to water, you could just take on the Bottomless Sea."

Lucas turned around, putting on the widest grin he could manage. "Oh, I... Uh... Good morning, Lilly!" Lucas shouted louder than he wished. He could feel heat rise in his neck as Lilly giggled her gorgeous laughter.

She then got to her feet, walking over to Lucas. As the yellow mouse stood next to Lucas, she stated, "You know, I'm usually the one waking you up. You usually don't get out of bed without my morning call."

Lucas smirked. "I thought a change would be much more adventurous."

_That's just like her,_ Lucas thought as he allowed Lilly to get over to the fountain behind him. He decided to walk over towards the exploration bag latched on the teeth of the rock formation and swung it over his body. _Always so cheerful when waking up. I still wonder how she manages to do that._

Lucas gazed over the leather container he carried. Somehow, the old bag still tightly bonded together despite the strain it took over the passing year. The last bag he possessed ripped apart from the graduation exam he and Lilly took. Ever since then, he traveled with this leather scrap though the ocean, in a buried ruin, through a lava-filled dungeon, and even in a battle with the legendary Palkia of space.

When the memories flowed away from his head, he faced Lilly and asked, "So... What are we going to do today?"

Lilly, brushing the front of her body with her paws, turned and grinned towards. "We do the same thing every day. I thought you would know our routine by now."

Lucas knew this to be true. It was about six months since they defeated Darkrai, and they have only done missions of rescuing, arresting, and protecting Pokémon. Nothing new ever came up besides the occasional newly discovered dungeon from Spinda's Project P.

"Well, what should we do then?" Lucas asked, opening the bag and looking through the contents. Inside were a few assorted berries and seeds, some orbs glimmering with different shades of blue, and the scarves Lucas and Lilly wore the night before.

"Lucas, are you sure you're awake yet?" Lilly asked, teasing slightly filling her voice.

Lucas closed the bag, latching the string to the make-shift button. "We do the same thing everyday. It's starting to get a bit... I dunno... Boring?"

"Oh? Are you saying _you_ are getting bored from doing the same thing over and over again?" Lilly questioned in forced enthusiasm. "_The_ Lucas, the one who _loves_ routine, is getting bored of exploring through dungeons?"

Ignoring the obvious statements from the Pikachu, Lucas apprehensively yelled, "We don't even explore any new dungeons anymore! I-I mean, we've just been doing missions of beating outlaws and rescuing Pokémon. We haven't even explored any place new for treasures or anything of the sort!"

Lilly glanced over Lucas, curiosity shining in her beautiful eyes. _Stop that, brain!_

"You know..." Lilly said, getting next to Lucas and placing her paw on his. As she touched him, he could feel her soaked paw gently lay on him. "You haven't complained before. And now that you are, I think you're right. We've been doing missions for a while." She fell silent for a moment, apparently thinking a bit. "So why not this? We go and explore -just the two of us- to another land! We could either have Lapras take us, or maybe we'll fly on top of another Pokémon. I don't know, just something to let us relax a bit."

She then took her paw and stroked one of the fresh bandages Lucas wore on his arm. The small sting rushed through Lucas, but it didn't bother him enough to react. "I can tell you've been a bit more tense recently. So maybe a little vacation could do both of us good."

Lucas smiled in acceptance. "That sounds great. To be with you means a lot to me."

Lucas and Lilly stared into each others' eyes, time seemingly slowing around them. He found Lilly slowly leaning in towards him. To Lucas's surprise, he did the exact same.

Almost as quickly as a Scyther's slash, he backed away and stated, "All right! Let's find adventure for a place for our vacation, shall we?"

Lilly blinked a few times as she stared at him with a blank expression. Lilly sighed in defeat and gave a less enthusiastic smile than before. "All right then... What do you suggest?"

Lucas quickly turned towards Lilly. "Hey, you're the one with the great ideas. I'm completely dull compared to your sharpness."

"Oh?" Lilly sounded, questioning Lucas with her expression. "You think you're dull? Who was the one who suggested that we should trap an outlaw by surrounding them with Doom Seeds?"

Lucas chuckled a bit. "W-Well, I... Well, you know..." Sadly, there _was_ no arguing with Lilly there. "Fine, you win," Lucas stated. "But that was just one time when I was in your mindset! But seriously, you're the mouse full of fun ideas!"

Lilly laughed. "Well then, I could come up with a way to get our vacation. How about... We get defeated by outlaws and are knocked into the sea and carried away?"

Lucas smirked. "We want a vacation, not a scene to frighten everyone," Lucas stated. "And anyways, you know how fire-types handle the water."

"Weren't you trying to resist water this morning?" Lilly asked quizzically. "Fine, you don't want to make a scene that would be exciting." Lilly smiled to herself. "But now, I'm wondering how well you can swim...?"

Lucas needed no time to think. "I think I could swim just fine, thank you."

Lilly fell silent as she stared up at the mossy ceiling. After many moments of silently sitting together, Lilly finally asked, "By the way, when was the last time you had a vision?"

Lucas looked at Lilly in surprise. "Huh?"

Lilly looked back to Lucas with a smile. "I don't remember the last time you activated your Dimensional Scream. When did you have your last vision?"

Lucas thought for a moment. _My last vision?_ Lucas thought, _It's true that I haven't had a vision in a long while. When was the last time I had a Dimensional Scream?_

Lucas stood there for a while, searching through his thoughts for an answer. After a while, Lucas shook his head. "I can't remember," Lucas admitted.

Lilly frowned. "You can't remember the last time you had a vision?" Lucas shook his head again, showing his disappointment. Lilly gazed at nothing for a bit before exclaiming, "Then maybe that's our ticket to our vacation! Let's reboot that ol' Dimensional Scream and find a new place to explore! Who knows? We might get another adventure from your DS!"

Lucas thought for a moment. _Yeah, that actually might sound like fun! We really haven't had an adventure for a long while!_

Lucas looked at Lilly with a large grin. "Well, sounds as good as any vacation. Let's do it!"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Lilly asked. "Let's go and explore!"

Lucas and Lilly both rose a clenched hand into the air, allowing the sun to give a vibrant glow to bounce off their smooth fur.

* * *

"It's amazing how... resilient these Pokémon are." The mysterious shadow, deep in the thoughts of his dark, plotting mind, wandered around the abyss of the shadowed realm. He continued muttering to himself, having full focus on his evil intentions.

The sound of a door screeching against the ground as a blade strikes against blade echoed through the dim-lit stone room. The mysterious shadow turned towards the disruption that broke his scheming mind, his emotionless expression hiding his extreme annoyance. A large-winged blue dragon, body covered in durable metals that shined from the small amount of light outside of the dreary room, entered the room with a grand bow of his neck.

"My Lord, you have called?" the Salamence asked, raising his head from the dusty stone that covered the floor of the room.

"Sir Salamence," the low, chilling voice called from the darkness. The mysterious shadow smirked at the winged-dragon, or at least it seemed like a smirk to him in the cold and gloomy abyss. The shadow continued, turning away from the Salamence. "We have been against the warriors of this land for far too long. My patience is running thin from the resistance these warriors place against me."

Salamence bowed towards the shadow and asked, "What do you suggest, my Lord?"

The mysterious shadow exhaled, seemingly deep in his concealed psyche. After a few more moments, he explained, "We need some other pawns to assist us in conquering this land. A pawns' strength that should be far greater than ours with partial assistance from another. These pawns will also need to be easily swayed to do our bidding."

"My Lord, you are the most powerful Pokémon on this land," Salamence commented, a bit of confusion hidden in his voice. "There is none greater than thyself, even with combined strengths."

"Yes, I am the most powerful on _this_ land." The mysterious shadow grabbed a thin, rectangular object from the desk merged into the wall. He threw the paper on the floor in front of Salamence, not even bothering to turn around. He quickly snatched the letter placed on the ground.

"Send this message to another land. See who comes to support us." The shadow appeared to sit down in some sort of chair in the darkness. "They may hold enough power to exceed mine and enough of a will to dominate the lands. But if they show to be of no worth... Destroy them before they reach this land."

Salamence gave a final bow before exiting the room and flying off. Another grimace came across the shadow's face as it brought up a circular and flat object before placing it onto the wall.

"Soon. This land will soon be mine. And the power that I seek will reveal itself..."

* * *

"Do you see anything, Lucas?" Lilly asked.

After a few moments, Lucas released the stone pebble he picked up from the ground and shook his head. "I'm not getting anything."

"Nothing at all?" Lilly asked. Lucas nodded in affirmation, which disappointed Lilly. "That's too bad," Lilly said while watching Lucas place the rock back onto the ground. "I thought that maybe you could touch something and just activate your DS."

Lucas shook his head and looked towards Lilly. "I thought you knew that I can't activate my Dimensional Scream whenever I feel like."

_I know that, Lucas, but still..._ Lilly thought as she walked towards Lucas with a grand smile.

"Heh, maybe not, but it's always nice to try again and again!"

_But there has to be a way for him to activate it..._ Lilly paced around, placing her paw onto her head as she continued to think carefully. _But then again... It might be kinda fun if..._

Lilly rose her paw from her head and rose one finger while collapsing the rest. "I got it! Lucas, touch me!"

Lucas blinked in confusion, somewhat showing a bit red behind his face. "Wh-what?" Lucas muttered.

_Kyaah!_ her mind squealed in delight as she walked up towards Lucas.

"Maybe we need to re-activate the Dimensional Scream by trying to remind it of why it works!" Lilly explained, wagging her tail towards Lucas in a playful manner. "Go ahead and give it a try, Lucas!"

Lucas looked over toward her tail, hesitant to move any part of his body near her. Lilly watched, withholding her laughter. Finally, he reached down and placed his paw onto her tail.

"Not so bad, Lucas, now was it?" Lilly teased as Lucas concentrated. "So, see anything yet, Lucas?" Lilly asked afterward, waiting anxiously for a reply.

They stood there in a long drawn-out silence. After what seemed the amount of time he needed, he shook his head. "Sorry, I can't-"

"WOAH-HO!" A loud voice boomed, which Lilly instantly recognized. "What do we have HERE!?"

_Oh boy..._ Lilly thought, seeing the blue Pokémon that had a mouth covering his body. She could feel Lucas's soft touch on her tail disperse immediately.

"Lucas was trying to get his Dimensional Scream working!" Lilly explained hastily, to her disdain of being obvious.

"Really? THAT'S what he WAS doing? Kinda looked like something ELSE to me!" the Loudred teased, causing Lucas to hide his face.

"U-Uh, well, i-it wasn't what it looked like!" Lilly stammered, trying to defend both her and Lucas.

"Is that SO?" Loudred said, stifling a snicker as he walked closer to Lucas and Lilly. "WELL, I'm not going to get INVOLVED with YOUR guys' search! I'm headed to town to PREPARE for an EXPLORATION. You GUYS are already doing your EXPLORATION, so I'll LEAVE you to yourselves!" Loudred then started walking down the pathway towards the sun, leaving Lucas and Lilly standing there, both faces flushing a deep crimson.

Lilly stared at the ground, feeling utterly embarrassed from what occurred. She felt a bit of guilt slip through for suggesting such a thing. She could only imagine how terribly angry Lucas could be at her for making him grasp her own body parts. She saw the ground turn dark for a moment, but she passed it off as just another Pelipper flying across the sky.

"H-Hey Lilly," Lucas stammered, sounding a bit shaken.

Unwillingly, she replied, "H-Huh?"

"Uh, th-there's someone going to Treasure Town," Lucas explained. "A... A new Pokémon. L-Let's go give them a welcome."

Lilly sighed in relief. _I'm so glad that Lucas is so decisive sometimes. He knows how to turn the tables around._

She didn't want to make him feel more uncomfortable, so she quickly put on her best smile and exclaimed, "Then what are we waiting for?" She glanced over towards Treasure Town, in which she could more clearly see the Pokémon; a Salamence covered in armor.

Lilly observed the Salamence in confusion. _That's strange. That's almost like he's-_

Her thoughts were interrupted abruptly. "Bet I could beat you there!" Lucas exclaimed, running ahead.

Lilly grinned slightly, quickly running up next to him. Lucas stared at Lilly in awe before giving a challenging smirk towards her.

After their small race -with Lilly as the victor- they finally stepped into the bustling town. In the center of the oasis, a bunch of Pokémon of various shapes familiar to them were gathered around the newcomer. The armored Salamence continued to shout out to the townsfolk as he held some type of written script with his claws. Walking up towards the crowd, they found a familiar sunflower being on the edge of the packed group.

"Hey, who's this Pokémon, Sunflora?" Lilly asked.

"I don't know," Sunflora admitted. "He said something about some Pokémon war in his land or something that is making everyone quite uneasy that's making everyone go 'Eeeekk!' But it's sorta out of the ordinary since there hasn't really been a war in, like, forever."

"That is... A bit strange," Lilly stated, sticking it to her mind. "The last war we ever had was three-hundred years ago in the Shadow Era..."

Loudred shushed from a little further up the crowd. "He's going to start."

Sunflora attempted to glare at Loudred, but he had his focus on the Salamence like the rest of the crowd around him. With a sigh, she joined the rest of the Pokémon in having focus on the Salamence. Lucas and Lilly looked at each other before mimicking Sunflora.

The Salamence looked around. "Now, I will begin my speech. Today, I speak to you about the war in my land! Please listen closely to my Lord's pleads in hopes that the message will be received! My Lord asks of you, my fellow Pokémon, to band together some of your strongest warriors to travel with me across the lands to assist in ending the war in Gerleniam. Please heed my words of what I shall say!

"Our land has raged battle against other lands in search of the most powerful Pokémon to grant them unlimited energy. For many years, countless Pokémon have been destroyed. Our land has been devastated by the attacks, so all Pokémon live in fear. We believe that the war will ravage all our lands, soon to gather to other lands that previously were in peace!

"But hear me when I say; there is a solution! My Lord will end the war by conquering all of the kingdoms and putting an end to this conflict! Sadly, my Lord hasn't the power to fulfill his dream, so he asks for aid in his conquest! We shall end the war in Gerleniam with the power of all those that are able to travel to our land! So, we ask for volunteers to help end the destruction and bring peace unto the world!"

The Pokémon talked among themselves in the town, all looking around each other and asking questions of the new information and about this so-called power. Others murmured about the rumors of the war, the destruction it may cause, and about how no hope of safety could come to pass.

_Huh,_ Lilly thought to herself. _They just need members for their army, right? We have helped save the world twice before, so why not help out a third time?_

"We'll help!" Lilly exclaimed over the crowd. All Pokémon ceased talking, turning to Lilly in surprise. "We're an exploration team: Team Luminous! It's our job to help Pokémon in need. We'll help in saving Gerleniam!"

The Pokémon started conversing amongst each other again. Lilly could hear pieces and parts of each spoke words.

"Team Luminous? Warriors?"

"That seems a little odd."

"They did defeat Darkrai though..."

"They saved the world from being frozen in time, too!"

"Well, we couldn't stop them, hey."

"Once they have their mind set to something, they'll get it done, yup!"

"But should we help out too, dad?"

"Son, we have work to do! And anyways, Team Luminous has this handled. If there's any Pokémon that can save a whole land, it's them for sure!"

"Yeah, we still have to protect our land's peace if this war does come over here, Diglett."

Small cheers from the crowd soon became overwhelmingly dominate over the whole town. The Pokémon then parted away to make room for Lucas and Lilly to walk through towards Salamence.'

"We're ready to help out, Salamence," Lilly said, giving a confident smile towards the Salamence. She knew that they could leave instantly since she and Lucas gathered supplies for the random exploration they planned to travel on.

Salamence gazed amongst the two and gave a small nod. He raised his head, giving a mighty roar into the air, shaking the ground underneath them. He then glanced over the crowd before announcing, "Behold! The chosen heroes you have agree upon will be the heroes of Gerleniam!"

The Pokémon gave another cheer as the armored Salamence motioned them to get onto his back. Lilly and Lucas climbed onto Salamence's armored back, waving to the townsfolk once on top of him. The armor felt strange to Lilly, but she ignored the feeling. She just watched as the Pokémon started becoming smaller, which surprised Lilly a bit at how quick the take-off was. Higher and higher they went; the cheers of the Pokémon becoming more silent. Soon, the view of the town became covered by the clouds. Salamence then started pushing the air behind him and excelled forward.

A sudden surge of excitement washed over Lilly as she realized that, once again, she and Lucas were adventuring together to save the world. She looked over Salamence's back towards Lucas and exclaimed, "Wow! This is amazing!"

Lucas smiled. "You know," Lucas said, his voice somehow cutting over the loud wind. "I didn't even get a say in if we should go or not," Lucas explained, leaning back onto the hard armor. "You just said, 'We'll do it!' before I had a chance to say something."

Lilly grinned. "Well, you're not saying it's a bad thing, are you?"

"Of course not!" Lucas exclaimed. "We're going to have another adventure with each other!"

Lilly grinned, feeling the relief that he shared the same opinion as her. "Well, you wanted different, and I don't think that there could be anything more different than stopping a war."

Salamence looked back, his voice clearly speaking towards them. "But, as you wait, rest yourselves for a long flight. I had myself be transported over to your land through psychic energy, but the travel back will be a long one." He faced back towards his path.

Lucas nodded, sitting back up. "Thanks, Salamence! We might do that. But I'm also a bit curious as to what are these lands like."

Salamence looked back towards Lucas with a grin. "You'll behold what it entails."

Lucas thought for a moment. "I guess so. But having an idea of what it's like would be kind of nice..."

Salamence chuckled. "You need not worry. You are explorers, are you not? So you should be able to adapt."

_Yes, we are explorers..._ Lilly thought to herself. _But still..._

Lucas sat next to Lilly, seemingly having some expectations. After a while of him observing his partner, he asked, "Is something wrong, Lilly?"

Lilly nodded and nudged her head away from Salamence's line of hearing. Luckily, Lucas caught on to the signal and whispered, "What's going on?"

Lilly turned her head towards Salamence's, then turned back to Lucas. "I don't know. It just seems that Salamence somehow seems like he's acting... Like he's _hiding_ something."

Lucas looked over to Salamence and looked back towards Lilly. "Is that because of there being no war in the land for a long time?"

"W-Well..." Lilly shifted herself towards Lucas. "It just strange how there was no mentions of a war for a long period of time in our lands, and all a sudden, there's a war going on for years that we didn't even know about. Something just seems a little strange about that..."

Lucas nodded. "I guess so, but we're in the air with him. If he's a bad guy, he may play some trick on us. We better be ready for anything." Lucas slung off the bag and placed it in front of Lilly. "Here, just in case something happens."

Lilly slung the leather strap around her. "Anyway, why do you think he's a bad guy?"

Lucas looked at the armor of the Salamence. "He might be playing a trick on us right now, and we're oblivious to it."

Lilly thought carefully. "But what could it be?"

Lucas continued glaring at the armor that Salamence wore. "Something just seems a little bit... Off about the feel of this armor as well."

Lilly's ears perked up as realization hit her. "You felt it too? What could it be?"

Lucas nodded, looking back towards Salamence's head before looking back to Lilly. "It might be some type of powder that could be affecting us now. I think we have a scarf inside there that can protect us from any of the powder ailments."

Lilly opened the bag and searched through it. She looked through the bag for a little bit. Shock then hit her harder than a Zapdos's Thunder.

_Where are the items?_

"Lucas, there's nothing inside the bag!"

"What!?" Lucas exclaimed over the wind, grabbing the open bag.

As he searched through the containment bag, Lilly thought to herself, _What could have happened? We left with our bag fully stocked. I saw Lucas put in the items!_

Salamence looked over in confusion. "Something the matter?" he questioned.

Lilly gave a fake smile to Salamence. "We just didn't stock up on the items we thought." Lilly pushed Lucas away from the bag and closed it, slinging the bag back onto her backside.

Salamence shook his head. "How interesting. Team Luminous not being conjunctively prepared. But looking back, I can see I may have took off a little too hastily." Salamence let out a small hearty laugh. "You can make preparations later."

Lilly sighed. "You're no help," she muttered, mostly to herself.

_I don't understand though... How could that have happened... Unless...?_

"So, Salamence," Lilly started. "Can you feel things slipping across your armor?"

Lucas looked at her in question for the random selection of topics. To her surprise, Salamence nodded. "I have trained myself to be one with my armor. I feel everything that hits my armor. From the strike of a beam to the simplest scarf sliding across it."

Lucas looked at Salamence in confusion. Lilly watched Lucas steadily as he was lost in his thoughts to the point where she could tell that he pieced it together.

"Hold on a minute," Lucas said, a little more interrogatively. "Why did you choose to say 'scarf'? Wouldn't paper like the _message_ you had be lighter and more appropriate?"

Salamence smirked over towards Lucas. "Paper is much too light for me to feel."

"Oh, right... So... Uh... where is the letter now?" Lucas asked.

Salamence shook his head. "Did you not see me leave the letter behind? I have my hopes in preparing the other lands for the upcoming war that may happen."

Lilly sighed as she listened to the two talk back and forth. She looked down at the clouds beneath them, only to see the same letter stuck in Salamence's armor.

"Well, shouldn't you have given the letter to someone of the town?" Lucas questioned.

Before Salamence could answer, Lilly stepped in. "More importantly, shouldn't the letter be in town and not inside your armor?"

Lucas looked towards her in confused as Salamence faced forward quickly. From what Lilly could hear, he was extremely aggravated with all his low mumblings. A sense of advantage fueled her confidence to go further.

"Well, Salamence?" Lilly pushed, attempting to make a statement.

Salamence faced back, a clear grin forming on his face. "I see that I made a mistake. Hopefully, the Pokémon of your town heeded to my words and will have the warning expound to other lands."

Lucas looked towards Lilly with a determined expression before turning towards Salamence. "You know, armor like this would be quite heavy to lug around, wouldn't you agree?"

Salamence gave a disapproving look towards Lucas. "Did you not listen to the answer I gave a little while ago? I trained myself to have the ability to fly in this armor. And, for your curiosity's sake, I've trained for five long years, bringing my agility and power to the extremity."

Lucas seemed to be lost in his thoughts, so Lilly decided to change the subject. "So, when did the war start?" Lilly asked.

Salamence looked forward. "This war lasted for quite some time. I don't believe I even remember when this war began."

Something seemed to click in Lucas. "Well... Uh... Didn't you say that it lasted for years?" Lucas inquired. "So you have an idea of when it started, right?"

A sigh seemed to escape Salamence. "You would be correct to an extent. I can only say what has been told in tales."

Lilly could feel a small grin creep up. _I wonder how well he can speak about this tale._

Accepting that thought, Lilly asked, "So, could you tell us the tale?"

Salamence looked back. "The tale?"

Lilly nodded. "Didn't you just say that you had heard it lasted for years from a folklore? So, can't you retell the tale to us?"

Lilly could see Salamence cringing, which just continued boosting her spirit of success. "Erm, I think that, uh, my recount of the tale would be quite sloppy."

Lucas looked at Lilly in a way that said that he was impressed with her.

"Well, tell us what you can then," Lilly stated, sitting down on the metal while carefully studying Salamence.

Salamence looked back straight forward. Lilly could feel a little shake in the armor before Salamence started. "Well, uh... The tale, yes. Uh, it starts with a... Or an evil leader, yes. An evil leader that wanted to take over Gerlenium. This leader, uh, decided to take action one day and, uh, we've been in war ever since."

Lilly smirked. "Strange. For a tale, you seem to miss some things about it. Like who this leader is and what caused him to attack like that."

Salamence's armor vibrated again for a longer period. "E-Erm, yes, that's correct. Uh, not much is known about this leader except that he began the war. Nobody even knows who this leader is as he, uh, destroys everyone he meets. Yes! No one can even know about him because he destroyed everyone he met."

Lilly nodded. "That's quite interesting." She then smirked again towards Salamence. "But how do you know that this leader is a male?"

_Got you,_ Lilly thought to herself as Lucas stared in awe at her.

"E-Erm, we can only assume that the leader is masculine because no female can, uh, kill well," Salamence stammered.

"Hey!" Lilly snapped. "That's discriminating against females! Girls could kill just as well as guys can!"

Salamence laughed. "I wish not to impose you, but that's what many thought for the tales since only males fought back then. In our lands, many female warriors fight in this present time."

A sudden clang sounded against Salamence's armor, forcing both Lilly and Lucas to fall down right onto the armor.

Salamence grinned. "Speaking of time..."

Green powder attached to both their bodies, sticking on like honey on the bark of a tree. Lilly could feel the extreme effects of the powder take effect as she started feeling drowsy.

"What the heck is this stuff?" Lucas asked loudly, though somewhat distorted to Lilly. The sky started bending many shades of black, with the silver seemingly melting into the hue. She felt somewhat contained as her body seemed to weigh her down towards the sandy-feeling specks.

"Lilly?" Lucas's voice cut as she started slipping into unconsciousness.

The final thing she heard before slipping into her state of unconsciousness rang in her head:

"Time for you two to fall into a deep slumber."

_Lucas stood in the space of darkness, nothingness surrounding him as he looked around. When he started walking around, he noticed that as his feet moved forward, he spun around vertically, somehow defying the laws of gravity in this mysterious place. Returning back to his normal stance, he looked around the abyss once again._

"_A dream?" Lucas thought, his voice echoing around him. "But... What about...?"_

_Lucas watched as a blur began to appear in front of him. "A vision..." Lucas thought as he flew in closer to the strange mash of colors._

_The colors began to sort themselves out as the vision became more clear. "A Pikachu..." Lucas thought, looking closer. "No, Lilly. She's..."_

_Before he could finish, the form that looked like his friend fell away before the vision blinked out._

_A strong wind then emerged from nowhere and flung him backwards. He flailed around, looking for something to latch onto; anything he could grab._

_Just as he thought his hope of escape flew away with the wind, Lucas felt himself pulled away from the strong wind. He looked to see some sort of orange being standing in front of him. It disappeared into the darkness before Lucas could get a close look of who or what saved him._

_Lucas then saw the vision re-emerging into form. He flew towards it, trying to reach the mesh of colors to see Lilly again. A strange pain seemed to start settling in, but Lucas ignored it as he persisted towards the blur._

_Finally, he reached the vision. It showed another mush of colors before forming into something viewable._

"_Wait, who...?" Lucas thought as he saw a strange orange fox with a black and blue lion cub._

_He thought back to the orange blur that rescued him. His thoughts appeared next to the vision, forming into the mash of color. He noticed that the tint of the fox was darker than the orange being that had rescued him._

_He watched as his thought of the orange being erased itself, leaving the fox and the lion alone._

"_Who are these guys?" Lucas thought as he watched the scene. "Someone I'll meet?" Lucas pondered the thoughts, letting the vision dissipate away._

_Lucas then started feeling a pulsating beat. The beat seemed to lighten the darkness of Lucas's mind as some stream of pain shot through him.[/i]_

Lucas felt the sting of sleep wearing off as he quickly jumped from where he sat. As he looked up into the sky, he saw that the sun was now setting behind the cloud-filled sky. _He... He knocked us out!_

Lucas was about to speak while he looked over to Lilly. Or, where Lilly was. Lucas's voice caught in his throat as he started looking around Salamence's back. No Lilly.

"Lilly?" Lucas asked. Then he realized something. He was on Salamence's back. On the back of the Pokémon that put him out. A sudden anger flared up inside him, with a small amount of worry for his lost friend.

"Where's Lilly?" Lucas commanded, fury into his eyes towards the Salamence.

Salamence looked back and grinned, but said nothing. Lucas's eyes widened, his teeth gritting from the anger he held back.

"You... You didn't..." Lucas stuttered before feeling the ground underneath him start to slip. Lucas quickly grabbed the wing of the now falling beast.

"Who are you!?" Lucas yelled, still clinging tightly to Salamence's wing. Salamence started spiraling towards the ground, Lucas grasp starting to loosen off the slick armor.

Salamence grinned. "And now, I bid you farewell," Salamence said, slapping Lucas off with his metal-covered tail.

Lucas looked up at Salamence as he fell. Salamence seemed to be speaking something before flying off. Lucas then spun to face the ground to see what he was going to land on. All Lucas could see were flashes of gray smears. Soon, Lucas could start seeing more clearly as he continued to descend. Solid rock.

Lucas's eyes widened as he tried to slow his fall by flapping his arms vertically. Lucas could see the rocks coming into range. Lucas shut his eyes, bracing himself for the hard landing below.


End file.
